


The Six of Us

by DangerousCommieSubversive



Series: Professor Subversive's Fandom Guide To Poetic Forms [3]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Closed forms, Confidence, Gen, Poetry, Sestina, Uncertainty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-07
Updated: 2012-11-07
Packaged: 2017-11-18 04:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerousCommieSubversive/pseuds/DangerousCommieSubversive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sestina on the formation of the Avengers, mostly from Tony's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Six of Us

**Author's Note:**

> So I've made this into a series, because poetry is fun to write and I'm a big nerd. A sestina is another highly repetitive closed poetic form--not as sexy as a villanelle, and rather harder to write, but still pretty awesome. This one wasn't originally intended to be from Tony's perspective, but it ended up like that anyway.

We looked and found the Devil was a man  
A madman, true, but with a deadly bite  
He looked within us and he saw the beast  
That scared us most: he said he'd start a war  
And hunt us down, like field mice to a hawk  
So now we wonder how to fight a god

We have among us now another god  
A golden paragon in form of man  
Doubt-filled, he's always watching, like a hawk  
He waits to see where next discord will bite  
Among us it's a merry kind of war  
To bicker on how we will stop the beast

Of battle—so, again, we found a beast  
Who worked so hard to recreate a god  
He fears that he will only make the war  
A massacre—he is a lonely man  
Tormented by his fear of rage's bite  
And hunted for the skills he will not hawk

The devil took our dearest friend, our hawk  
And twisted him so he would serve the beast  
His lover now must hone her poison bite  
And use her cleverness to trick a god  
Divine he may be, but he's still a man  
And she is well-schooled in the arts of war

My father's friend has long since won his war  
But didn't see it through—he is a hawk,  
Can't bunk with doves. We made a perfect man  
And found that we had also made a beast  
Of cold perfection, too much like a god  
For comfort—he does not feel age's bite,

Can't change like us. Myself, I feel the bite  
Of guilt—an architect of war  
Is no fit company for man or god  
I used to travel everywhere to hawk  
My killing wares, but now I feel a beast.  
I'm no fit friend for them. I'm just a man.

A poison spider's bite, a bright-eyed hawk  
A raging beast, an ageless man of war  
An ancient god and me—only a man

Lost creatures, what he called us: that is true,  
But in a pinch we all know what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more details on how one goes about writing a sestina, I'd recommend The Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry's book on writing poetry. It's actually a generally good intro to poetry and poetic forms. The ending couplet I added to mine isn't strictly form, but I wanted it there.
> 
> Next up, there will be sonnets.
> 
> If you enjoyed this, please let me know!


End file.
